﻿A native of Korea, ﻿Junghwa Moon Auer began her piano study at the age of six. She attended the prestigious Yewon Middle School and Seoul Music and Art High School where she was recognized as one of their most gifted students. She studied with Hyung Bae Kim and Min Suk Kim, then went on to do her undergraduate work at Yeonsei University with Kyung Sook Lee.

Ms. Moon came to the United States in 1993 to study under Gabriel Chodos at the New England Conservatory, where she obtained her MM degree. She attended the Aspen Music Festival four years, as well as summer programs in Chautauqua, Luzern, and Prague, where she performed and received several prizes in the festival competitions. At the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati she pursued her DMA with Eugene and Elizabeth Pridonoff, and won CCM’s concerto competition, performing the Schumann Concerto with the CCM Philharmonia under Mark Gibson. While there she won the WGUC Radio audition, which led to a live radio broadcast, and was a prizewinner in the Ibla International Competition in Italy. During this time she was also invited back to Korea to play in the Kumho Recital Series.

In 2001 Ms. Moon returned home, where she performed frequently in Seoul, Busan and Gwangju and taught in several universities, including Seoul National. During this time she performed Beethoven’s Emperor concerto with the Janácek Orchestra in the Czech Republic, Chopin E minor with the Zilina Orchestra in Slovakia and Mozart K. 467 with the Cairo Symphony, the first Korean pianist ever to play in Egypt.

Last year she played the Mozart double concerto with her husband, Edward Auer, in Busan and Hong Kong as well as at Indiana University.

Junghwa Moon has been living in Bloomington, Indiana since 2006, where she and her husband host a house concert series, “Music in the Woods,” in their home.back to top

Jerome Lowenthal, born in 1932, continues to fascinate audiences, who find in his playing a youthful intensity and an eloquence born of life-experience. He is a virtuoso of the fingers and the emotions.

Mr. Lowenthal studied in his native Philadelphia with Olga Samaroff-Stokowski, in New York with William Kapell and Edward Steuermann, and in Paris with Alfred Cortot, while traveling annually to Los Angeles for coachings with Artur Rubinstein. After winning prizes in three international competitions (Bolzano, Darmstadt, and Brussels), he moved to Jerusalem where he played, taught and lectured for three years.

Returning to America, he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic playing Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1963. Since then, he has performed everywhere, from the Aleutians to Zagreb. Conductors with whom he has appeared as soloist include Barenboim, Ozawa, Tilson Thomas, Temirkanov, and Slatkin, as well as giants of the past such as Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy, Pierre Monteux and Leopold Stokowski. He has played sonatas with Itzhak Perlman, piano duos with Ronit Amir (his late wife), Carmel Lowenthal (his daughter), and Ursula Oppens, as well as quintets with the Lark, Avalon and Shanghai Quartets. He has recently recorded the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 with cadenzas by eleven different composers. His other recordings include concerti by Tchaikovsky and Liszt, solo works by Sinding and Bartók, and chamber music by Arensky and Taneyev.

Teaching is also an important part of Mr. Lowenthal's musical life. For twenty years at the Juilliard School and for forty-one summers at the Music Academy of the West, he has worked with an extraordinary number of gifted pianists, whom he encourages to understand the music they play in a wide aesthetic and cultural perspective and to project it with the freedom which that perspective allows.back to top

﻿Peter Bithell studied with Gordon Green at the Royal Academy of Music and subsequently with Guido Agosti in Italy and with Maria Curcio in London.

He won many prizes and awards at International Piano Competitions, notably Busoni (Bolzano), Reina Sofia (Madrid), Paloma O’Shea (Santander), Dudley, Marguerite Long (Paris) and the Rachmaninoff Prize in Italy.

Bithell has played extensively in Europe and South America. He gives regular master classes, notably in Spain, and has served on the juries of several International Piano Competitions. He has been a professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama since 1987.

﻿﻿Nicholas Roth began formal studies at age twelve, receiving critical acclaim for his appearances by the age of eighteen. He is featured in recitals and festivals throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, Serbia and Spain. Roth is a Yamaha Artist, a Beethoven Fellow of the American Pianists Association, won first prizes in the chamber music competitions of Tortona and Pietra Ligure, Italy, and received a DAAD grant to further his studies in Germany. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Michigan State University, Artist Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, and MM and BM degrees from Indiana University, where he was the recipient of the School of Music's highest honors. His teachers were Ralph Votapek, Elisso Virsaladze, Helmut Deutsch, Edward Auer, Emilio del Rosario, and Michel Block. Roth is Associate Professor of Piano at Drake University. His recordings with Blue Griffin Recording have garnered favorable reviews in Fanfare, American Record Guide, International Record Review, and Gramophone.

Roth taught masterclasses at Indiana University, SoundSCAPE Festival in Italy, Isidor Bajić School of Music in Serbia, International Beethoven Festival in Chicago, University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Chicago among others. He was a presenter for the European Piano Teachers Association - World Piano Conference in Serbia and is an Accreditation Examiner with distinction (Diploma of Excellence) for the World Piano Teachers Association. A Nationally Certified Teacher of Music of the Music Teachers National Association, he is a frequent presenter, adjudicator and administrator for MTNA events. Roth was honored by the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the State of Indiana for his "contribution to the performing arts, his accomplishments as a concert pianist, and his inspiration to young musicians."

﻿﻿Jonathan Chesson received his Master's in Piano from the Jacobs School of Music in 2012, where he studied with Mr. Edward Auer. He participated in competitions such as the Vladimir Horowitz International Competition for Young Pianists and the Kingsville International Piano Competition, of which he was a prize winner. Currently, he is the staff accompanist and piano teacher at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan.

Winner of the 2002 Orléans Concours International and Laureate of the 2003 Honens International Piano Competition, Canadian pianist Winston Choi is an inquisitive performer whose fresh approach to standard repertory, and masterful understanding, performance and commitment to works by living composers, make him one of today’s most dynamic young concert artists.

Choi maintains an active international performing schedule. In demand as a concerto soloist, orchestras he has appeared with include the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the CBC Radio Orchestra, the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra, the East Texas Symphony Orchestra, the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Iowa, the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, La Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, l’Orchestre Symphony d’Orléans, l'Orchestre National de Lille, l’Orchestre Symphonique d’Orléans, the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and the Victoria Symphony Orchestra.

Known for his colorful approach to programming and insightful commentary from the stage, Choi has recently appeared in recital at the National Arts Centre of Canada, the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, New York’s Carnegie-Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Recital Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., the Kravis Center in Florida, and the “Cicle Grans Solistes” in Spain. Choi performs extensively in France, having played venues such as the Salle Cortot, Lille’s Festival Rencontre Robert Casadesus, the Messiaen Festival, and the Strasbourg Festival.

Frequently in demand throughout his native Canada, he has been awarded numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts. His numerous performances can often be heard on CBC radio broadcasts. Recently, he toured Eastern Ontario and Quebec under the auspices of Jeunesses Musicales and embarked on a 10-city Prairie Debut tour of the Canadian Prairie provinces. Choi is currently touring with Bach's epic Art of Fugue. An accomplished chamber musician, he tours regularly with his wife, MingHuan Xu as Duo Diorama, as well as with the ensemble Pivot Chamber Soloists and the Civitas Ensemble.

As a dedicated champion of contemporary music, Choi has premiered and commissioned over 100 works by young composers as well as established masters. A composer himself, being involved with the creative process is an integral part of his artistry. He was the first pianist to perform Pierre Boulez’s last version of Incises in North America and made the South American premiere of Luciano Berio‘s Sonata for pianoforte solo. He also regularly appears in concert at IRCAM, the world’s most renowned institution for contemporary music. Composers he has collaborated with include William Bolcom, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, Brian Ferneyhough, Bright Sheng, Christian Wolff, Chen Yi and John Zorn. He is also a core member of the new music ensemble Brave New Works and the Chicago-based Ensemble Dal Niente. His upcoming performances include piano concerti by Jeffrey Mumford, John Melby and Jacques Lenot.

Already a prolific recording artist, Choi’s debut CD, the complete piano works of Elliott Carter (l’Empreinte Digitale in France) was given 5 stars by BBC Music Magazine. He has also recorded 2 CDs of the piano music of Jacques Lenot for the Intrada label, having won the Grand Prix du Disque from l’Académie Charles Cros for Volume I. Other labels he can be heard on include Albany, Arktos, Crystal Records, Naxos and QuadroFrame.

Choi began his studies in Toronto with James Tweedie and Vivienne Bailey. He obtained both his Bachelor and Master Degrees at Indiana University, receiving the Performer’s Certificate studying with Menahem Pressler. Further studies were with Ursula Oppens at Northwestern University, where he completed his Doctorate of Music. An accomplished teacher, he is also in demand as a master class clinician. Previously on the faculties of Bowling Green State University and the Oberlin Conservatory, he is Associate Professor and Head of Piano at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

﻿Su Bin, born in Shanghai in 1963. He received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Hanxin He, Luxi Tan, and Mingqiang Li.

He started his teaching position at Shanghai Conservatory right after his graduation in 1988.Meanwhile, he studied piano with Shuxing Zheng and conducting with Xiaotong Huang. He has cooperated with Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Orchestra, Youth Orchestra of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and Beijing Symphony Orchestra, etc.

From 1993, with France national scholarship, Su furthered his study in piano pedagogy at Conservatoire de Paris and piano performance at L’Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris with André Gorog Paris. During this period, he held solo recitals in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. He taught at Marly-le-Roi Conservatory from 1996 to 1998.

Su joined the faculty of Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1998. He also travels to teach and perform in many cities in China, as well as in France and U.S. His students has won numerous national and international awards.